Sawt Falasteen - Russia pummels Kyiv, killing five and denting peace hopes

AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens wailing out over the city before several hours of thunderous explosions and flashes in the sky sent Kyiv residents running to shelter in metro stations.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defence units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles.

"Everything was burning. People were screaming... people were shouting," Andriy, a Kyiv resident still wearing a nightgown and with blood stains on his shirt, told AFP near a collapsed Soviet-era residential building.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced five people were killed and around 40 were wounded in the capital, where he said residential buildings, a school, a vet clinic and other civilian infrastructure was damaged.

"These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end. It is important that partners do not remain silent about this strike," he added.

Zelensky praised his air defence units for downing 93 percent of the projectiles but said the ratio needed to be higher and conceded: "the most difficult challenge is defending against ballistic missiles."

Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, said in a statement that its strikes were retaliatory in nature, and that its wave of missiles and drones had targeted military-linked sites and energy facilities that support the Ukrainian army.

- Chaotic rescue scenes -

At daybreak, AFP journalists witnessed chaotic scenes as rescue workers dug through mounds of debris from a collapsed residential building gutted in the attack.

Emergency service workers were seen hauling from the site those wounded and killed in the strikes, and residents were seen crying while waiting for news of loved ones and neighbours.

The barrage is the latest major setback for efforts to end the conflict after US President Donald Trump raised faint hopes for peace by brokering a three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow last week, and Russia's leader Vladimir Putin suggested the war could be winding down.

That ceasefire -- put in place as Putin presided over a scaled-down military parade in Red Square to mark the anniversary of victory in World War II -- was marred by allegations of violations by both sides.

And both Ukraine and Russia launched long-range drone attacks immediately after it ended on Tuesday.

Russia has fired more than 1,500 drones at Ukraine over the last 36 hours, Kyiv's air force said.

- UN 'targeted' -

The Kremlin has poured cold water on the idea that Putin's vague comments, issued Saturday, about the war "heading to an end" could mean a softening in Moscow's position.

On Wednesday it repeated its demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region before a ceasefire and full-scale peace talks can take place.

Kyiv has rejected such a move as tantamount to capitulation.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities for more than four years, but it usually launches large-scale drone and missile attacks at night.

On Wednesday, an hours-long barrage of at least 800 Russian drones targeting mainly western Ukraine killed six people and wounded dozens of others.

Zelensky has since urged Trump to discuss ending the conflict during his meetings in Beijing this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

A senior Ukrainian presidency official told AFP the scale of Thursday's attacks was so large because there had been an earlier pause and linked its timing to the meeting between the US and Chinese leaders.

The official called it "a demonstration during Trump's talks in China", without elaborating.

Russia drones on Thursday separately struck a UN vehicle in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of having deliberately targeted it.

"The Russians twice attacked a vehicle of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs with FPV drones, and the Russians could not have been unaware of which vehicle they were targeting," he wrote on X, adding there were no casualties.

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U.Shaheen--SF-PST